Alienating parents will often attempt to gain or retain 100% custody by vilifying the target parent.The excuse often used for this is that the target parent is a child abuser. In many cases, perhaps even most, this assertion is false. Even if they are not entirely false, they may be so disproportionate that they are distortions that do not represent reality. For instance, many parents will yell or grab at a child for misbehaving in a dangerous or aggressive fashion, particularly if the behavior is putting themselves and others in harms way. An alienating parent may take such appropriate yelling or grabbing and twist them into claims the target parent is beating the children and is a child abuser. In many ways, this is very much like the“distortion campaign”practiced by many victims ofBorderline Personality Disorder (BPD). So it should come as no surprise thatparents who suffer from BPD are also prone to demonstrate parental alienation behaviors.